Black-and-white or colors?

I like black-and-white pictures. I deliver you most of the pictures in color, and some (maybe 5%) in black and white. Some pictures can be very nice in black and white, especially the ones with a beautifully natural light. It is out of time and graceful. It could also be a dramatic, or dynamic effect. Black and white works also well to tell all the little stories, all anecdotes. UPDATED : Since 2017, I have decided to deliver you 2 option: one with images in color (that could include 5% of Black and White). The other one is to download all image in Black and White.

Timeless Pictures

Photography history started more than one century ago with black-and-white pictures. During more than 100 years, the best photographers used only black and white. Why? Well, the main reason is probably because good color pictures were out of price, but also because it brings something out of time. So even now, the best and more famous photographers still shoot in Black-and-White when it makes sense. Let thinks a bout Richard Avedon, Irving Penn. Funny fact : did you know that first colored images were made with potato starch?

Texture and Noise

Noise in black and white becomes textures. Little nuance of light becomes material to play with. Let’s think about Edward Weston photographs on vegetables (famous pepper)! Usually I do not add noise to pictures (I even try to avoid it!). But in black and black, this texture became something interesting! A portrait made near a window, with a soft light from a cloudy day, will reveal the shape of your face with another way than with a strong frontal light flash. A beautiful black and with a soft natural light will be full of details, but more, full of elegance and magic.

Bad Light and Black-and-White

It’s not glamour to say that, but I will confess something to you, I also like Black and White because can save pictures with default! What??

Let’s think about a flashy color that I don’t want. For example, at the church, just behind you and your beloved, stands your mother-in-law with a red jacket…— By the way, I want to ask all mothers in laws to excuse me for always taking them as an example, it’s just for the fun —. So you are in the church, and behind you someone with a flashy red jacket. I can open my aperture to blur all the background. But still…even if we don’t clearly see the red jacket, we will feel it! Because it’s deep red! So, how to save the pictures? Black and white is the solution!

Let’s think about a difficult situation where I would have different kinds of light with different kinds of temperatures : natural light from outside (blue), an artificial light from an incandescent bulb (yellow), and third, a chemical light for a fluorescent tube (green). Even with the best camera, I will not always be able to neutralize a “bad” color. What does it mean? That you may have a green skin if you are under the fluorescent tube. Or If I fix the color on your skin, it’s the background color that will change and became strange (like over pink). So can you guess how it’s an easy way to fix that without change all the light bulbs of your wedding venue? I will pass some images in Black and white one more time.

I like Black and White but I Also love colors!

Most of pictures you will receive will be in color. I think that it’s closer to reality where ordinary people see life in color (forget the color blindness people).

Awesome color enhancement.

In order to give your skin tone the best color, with all nuance of color I improve each picture one by one. In order to give the landscape the sharper and more realistic color, I treat all images with sophisticated software that provide natural results (and not HDR effect!). That’s not a small detail, a huge difference. A retouch pictures with good colors would be more realistic, or let’s stay simple, more beautiful. I invite you to have a look of my workflow retouch if you haven’t done yet.